Category Archives: Africa

Supplies running out at Sudan’s remaining hospitals as healthcare disaster looms

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In El Fasher, in North Darfur, only one hospital remains functional, with bomb damage, power cuts and only weeks until lifesaving equipment and drugs run out

Until gunfire broke out on the streets of El Fasher this month, the state capital of North Darfur had several main hospitals. There was the big teaching hospital, the Saudi hospital, a paediatric hospital and the South hospital, a modest 35-bed facility with big ambitions and a specific remit: to help bring down the high numbers of local women dying in pregnancy and childbirth.

Now, almost two weeks into the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), two weeks of bloodshed that has seen terror return to a region once synonymous with human suffering, those options have narrowed.

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Sentence of Kenyan man convicted of role in Briton’s murder is quashed

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David Tebbutt’s widow ‘delighted’ as court rules conviction of Ali Kololo for robbery with violence was unsafe

A man found guilty of being part of a gang of pirates who murdered a British tourist 12 years ago has had his conviction quashed by Kenya’s high court.

Ali Kololo, from Lamu County, was convicted of robbery with violence in connection with the 2011 attack that left David Tebbutt dead and his wife, Judith, held captive in Somalia for six months.

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Second Kenyan pastor accused of mass killing of followers

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Ezekiel Odero arrested and more than 100 people evacuated from church, days after discovery of bodies linked to another church

One of Kenya’s highest-profile pastors is facing charges over the “mass killing of his followers”, the government has said, just days after the discovery of dozens of bodies linked to another church.

Ezekiel Odero, the head of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, “has been arrested and is being processed to face criminal charges related to the mass killing of his followers”, the interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, said in a statement.

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Ivory displayed at Prince William’s palace despite his criticism of trade

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Artwork exhibited at Kensington Palace among nearly 2,000 artefacts in royal collection

For more than a decade, Prince William has spoken out vehemently against the use of ivory, calling it “a symbol of destruction, not of luxury”. The royal patron of the anti-ivory charity Tusk has lobbied leaders in China, the US and countries across Africa.

He has even said that he wants to destroy all the ivory owned by the royals. In 2019, a spokesperson for William clarified that while destroying all the ivory in the royal collection was beyond the prince’s control, he had “ensured there is no ivory from the collection at Kensington Palace”, his place of residence.

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Sudan conflict: renewed clashes raise fears ceasefire will not be extended

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UK military chiefs say flights will continue as long as conditions are safe

Renewed clashes in Khartoum and in south-west Sudan have raised fears that the current three-day ceasefire due to expire on Thursday night will not be extended and fighting will instead intensify

A surge in violence would threaten the evacuation of thousands of foreign nationals who remain in Sudan. UK military chiefs said flights would continue as long as conditions were safe, although the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the UK “cannot guarantee” how many would depart once the ceasefire ends.

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UK evacuation of Sudan ‘could continue after ceasefire ends’

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Military says emergency flights will operate as long as conditions are safe, as civilians arrive in Britain

Britain could continue running evacuation flights from Sudan once the current three-day ceasefire expires on Thursday night, the army officer in charge of the rescue said, as the first planeload of civilians rescued from the country’s civil war arrived at Stansted airport.

Brig Dan Reeve said the airlift from a base north of Khartoum would continue as long as conditions were safe, including possibly beyond the ceasefire period, if people could still travel there.

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‘Like a Bond movie’: Britons describe perilous journeys to escape Sudan

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More than 300 British nationals have fled bombing and shelling to reach a rescue flight out of Khartoum

After embarking on a perilous escape through military checkpoints and continuing clashes, British nationals evacuated from Sudan have spoken of their nightmare ordeals.

More than 300 Britons made the dangerous journey to the Wadi Seidna airbase north of Khartoum in the hope of boarding a rescue flight out of Sudan to Cyprus.

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UK ‘should impose sanctions on human rights abusers in Sudan’ – report

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UK all-party group says failure to bring to justice Darfur abusers 20 years ago has led to current violence

The UK should impose sanctions on human rights abusers in senior Sudanese military positions as well as designate the Wagner group operating in Sudan as a terrorist group, a report from the all-party group on Sudan has urged.

The group, including the Conservative former Africa minister Vicky Ford, said on Wednesday the west has allowed impunity to become the norm, and the failure to bring to justice many of those responsible for the genocide in Darfur 20 years ago has allowed the same militia to regroup and form part of the forces now blocking democracy in the country.

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Sudan: fighting eases during truce as thousands flee country

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With partially held ceasefire due to expire on Thursday, UN says neither side ready to seriously negotiate

Sounds of gunfire and explosions have continued to rock Sudan’s capital, but the intensity of the fighting across the country has eased for a truce that residents hope will provide relief for people trapped with dwindling food, water and medicine.

On Wednesday afternoon, an army jet thundered across Khartoum and bombed militant positions in the city’s western outskirts, hitting an apartment block in the neighbourhood of Ombada.

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Sudan conflict live: more than 500 evacuated on six UK flights, says Foreign Office – as it happened

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António Guterres says ‘conflict will not and must not be resolved on the battlefield’

The British government is considering a possible seaborne evacuation from Port Sudan, 500 miles from the capital, PA Media reports.

HMS Lancaster and the RFA Cardigan Bay have been sent to the region.

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Sudan: UK evacuates more than 300 people amid criticism of response

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Further flights expected to leave airfield north of Khartoum on Wednesday, but proportion of British evacuees is unclear

Britain has evacuated more than 300 people from Sudan on rescue flights from an airfield north of the capital, with the first group on their way to the UK from Cyprus, where flights have been stopping over.

Downing Street said 301 people have been evacuated on three flights and that and a fourth was being loaded. A further four flights are expected to take off on Wednesday, but it is not clear what proportion of those rescued are British.

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Wednesday briefing: What faces Sudanese people caught in a warzone

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In today’s newsletter: Amid gunsmoke and airstrikes, civilians must choose whether to travel towards uncertain safety, or risk violence by staying behind. What questions face anyone trying to leave – and what might happen if they go?

Good morning. For at least some of the British nationals attempting to flee the conflict that has broken out in Sudan, this morning is a moment of profound relief: the second of three evacuation flights from an airfield north of Khartoum recently arrived in Cyprus, with a third expected soon. Citizens of Turkey, France, and other countries were also flown out. But for Sudanese people – even those whose close relatives were aboard the UK flights – the exodus may simply have served as a reminder of the dangers from which they have far more limited respite.

A ceasefire between army units loyal to Sudan’s military ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former ally Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, came into effect at midnight on Tuesday, and it is supposed to last for two more days. In theory, this should provide an opportunity for civilians to flee the theatres of conflict and reach safe harbour.

US news | Joe Biden has formally announced his campaign for re-election in 2024, asking Americans for four years to “finish this job”, possibly setting up an extraordinary rematch with Donald Trump. Vice-president Kamala Harris, the highest-ranking woman and person of colour in US politics, will be Biden’s running mate again.

Monarchy | New court filings submitted by Prince Harry reveal that his brother Prince William received a previously undisclosed “very large sum of money” in 2020 to settle a phone-hacking claim against the owner of the Sun and the News of the World. The high court also heard that Queen Elizabeth II personally threatened News UK with legal proceedings over hacking, only to be undermined by the then Prince Charles.

Immigration | The UK government secretly deported more than 100 Nepali guards who risked their lives to protect British embassy staff in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized back control in 2021, days after they arrived. The decision was taken even though many had been issued with six-month visas on arrival.

Politics | The head of the civil service has attempted to block Sue Gray from working with Labour until after the next general election, the Guardian has been told. Keir Starmer’s choice for his new chief of staff caused controversy when it was unveiled as Gray had led the civil service inquiry into the Partygate scandal.

Music | Harry Belafonte, the singer, actor and civil rights activist who broke down racial barriers in the US, has died aged 96. Read a tribute by the director Steve McQueen: “He had everything, but his service was always to his people.”

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Revealed: most of EU delegation to crucial fishing talks made up of fishery lobbyists

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Europe accused of ‘neocolonialism’ for using vassal small island states to sway policy and continue ‘disgraceful plundering’ of distant waters

More than half of the EU’s delegation to a crucial body of tuna stock regulators is made up of fishing industry lobbyists, the Guardian’s Seascape project can reveal, as Europe is accused of “neocolonial” overfishing in the Indian Ocean.

The numbers could shed some light on why the EU recently objected to an agreement by African and Asian coastal nations to restrict harmful fish aggregating devices (FADs) that disproportionately harvest juvenile tuna. Stocks of yellowfin tuna are overfished in the Indian Ocean.

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UK government funding anti-LGBTQ+ organisation in Uganda, says report

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The Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, which is openly homophobic, is a direct recipient of UK aid money

The UK government is helping to fund the work of a virulently homophobic religious organisation in Uganda, whose leaders have backed a proposed law that would make identifying as gay a criminal offence, a report has found.

Analysing official data given to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), the report by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC) found a “staggering” number of connections between anti-LGBTQ+ organisations in Uganda and international aid donors, including the UK.

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‘Hungry, exhausted, traumatised’: Sudanese scramble to flee their homeland

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Thousands of refugees face transport chaos, cash shortages, scammers and visa delays as they race to escape to neighbouring countries

Long queues are building on Sudan’s borders, where people fleeing intense fighting are facing daylong waits and demands for visas in order to cross to safety.

On Tuesday, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) said it was expecting 270,000 refugees to cross into Chad and South Sudan, including South Sudanese returning home. It did not have projections for Egypt or Ethiopia, where many fleeing from the capital, Khartoum, have headed, or for other neighbouring countries. The UNHCR estimated that, so far, up to 20,000 refugees have crossed into Chad from Darfur, and 4,000 into South Sudan.

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Portugal should apologise for role in slave trade, says its president

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Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa makes rare acknowledgement of centuries of forced transportation of millions of Africans

Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has said his country should apologise and take responsibility for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, the first time a leader of the southern European nation has suggested such a national apology.

From the 15th to the 19th century, 6 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels and sold into slavery, primarily to Brazil.

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UK finds itself at back of the queue in Sudan evacuation

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Britain criticised for prioritising embassy staff as Germany and France celebrate evacuating hundreds of citizens

By the time Britain’s first civilian evacuation flight had taken off from a rough airfield north of Khartoum on Tuesday afternoon, other European nations were highlighting their successes in evacuating hundreds of their citizens from Sudan.

Britain’s military may have been the first to use the Wadi Seidna base on Sunday afternoon, with permission of Sudan’s embattled government, to evacuate two dozen diplomatic staff, but the UK then passed on control of the airport to Germany.

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Sudan live: Sudanese army accused of breaching ceasefire as ‘large-scale evacuation’ of UK nationals begins

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RSF claims violation of truce as UK foreign secretary says government contacting nationals directly and providing routes for departure

Alicia Kearns, the Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton is the chair of the UK parliament’s foreign affairs select committee, and she has been doing the media round in the UK this morning.

She told Sky News she felt “enormous relief” at the news that the evacuation process was beginning, but cautioned to hold all those involved “in our hearts” because “as we all know the ceasefire did not hold on Saturday for more than three hours.”

We know that not everyone who has registered with the Foreign Office of those numbers actually wants to be evacuated.

So look, they’ve said they want to get passport holders out. They’re going to prioritise women, children, the vulnerable, those with medical needs. That is absolutely the right thing to do. But it is a race against time.

Pressure had been growing on the UK government to act, following the removal of embassy staff at the weekend and as other nations pressed on with their own extractions. Family members of some stranded Brits had complained they felt abandoned. The FCDO pushed back, saying there were more British nationals needing assistance than those from most other countries, and it was simply unsafe to move large numbers of people, including children and the elderly, without a cessation in the fighting.

A Foreign Office official said ambassador Giles Lever had been instrumental in helping to broker the ceasefire thanks to his personal connections to senior figures in both the government and RSF. Lever has taken a certain amount of heat since it emerged he was in the UK for the Easter holiday when the crisis broke out

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UK to start evacuating British nationals from Sudan

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RAF transport planes fly into country, as UK government takes advantage of ceasefire

The British government is taking advantage of a 72-hour ceasefire agreed by the warring factions in Sudan to evacuate UK nationals from the country, following intense criticism that it had missed a window of opportunity to evacuate more than British diplomats and their families on Sunday.

RAF transport planes have been flying into the Wadi Seidna airfield, north of Khartoum, from where UK nationals are due to be flown to Cyprus, which is being used as a staging post by the British military.

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Airstrikes threaten three-day truce in Sudan

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Senior aid worker issues warning over armed seizure of Khartoum lab containing deadly diseases

Airstrikes and reports of renewed fighting have threatened a delicate three-day truce in Sudan, while a senior aid worker warned of a potential “huge biological hazard” resulting from the armed seizure of a Khartoum laboratory containing deadly diseases.

A 72-hour ceasefire came into effect across the country at midnight on Monday night and was largely holding. It is intended to give Sudanese people respite from days of bloodshed and allow the wounded to reach already limited medical care. World powers hope it will also provide time for a massive international rescue mission to fly out evacuees.

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